Neuroscience
- Animals
Rock ants favor left turns in unfamiliar crevices
Rock ants’ bias for turning left in mazes, a bit like handedness in people, may reflect different specializations in the halves of their nervous system.
- Neuroscience
Smartphone users’ thumbs are reshaping their brains
Smartphones are forcing us to use our thumbs in new ways and reshaping the way our brains respond to touch.
- Animals
Crows may be able to make analogies
Crows with little training pass a lab test for analogical reasoning that requires matching similar or different icons.
- Neuroscience
Year in review: Memories vulnerable to manipulation
New experimental results in 2014 helped bring scientists closer to understanding how the brain manipulates memories to make sense of the world.
- Neuroscience
Cocoa antioxidant sweetens cognition in elderly
Very high doses of antioxidants found in cocoa may prevent some types of cognitive decline in older adults. But that’s not an excuse to eat more chocolate.
- Neuroscience
Year in review: Young blood aids old brains
Ingredients in young blood can rejuvenate old mice’s bodies and brains, scientists reported in 2014.
- Neuroscience
Year in review: The nose knows a trillion odors
Humans can suss out more than 1 trillion different smells, a 2014 study estimated.
- Neuroscience
Molecule impairs brain cells that fail in Alzheimer’s
In mice, blocking a molecule on immune cells allowed them to mop up the type of protein buildup seen in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s.
- Neuroscience
Place cells in brain reveal how memories are kept separate
Place cells' distinct firing patterns reveal how the brain has such a huge capacity for storing memories and distinguishing them from one another.
- Neuroscience
Main protein for sensing touch identified in mammals
A close look at how mice respond to touch has helped scientists pinpoint the protein, called Piezo2, that makes mammals feel the sensation.
- Neuroscience
Dogs’ brains may process speech similar to humans’
When it comes to interpreting human speech, dogs may have brain-hemisphere biases similar to people’s.
- Neuroscience
The molecular path of best resilience
Many studies focus on susceptibility to stress and how it triggers depression. But a new study highlights a protein important in resilience, showing that resisting stress takes work, too.
